What exactly is marcato, and what is martele?
Answer Salutations Megan, While many players do not try to differentiate between marcato and martele, there is a difference, especially for bowed-stringed instrument players. One has to look at the actual languages that these words come from to find out exactly what is meant by each one. Marcato comes from the Italian meaning to be “marked.” Martele comes from the French meaning to be “hammered.” Now that we know that, what does that REALLY mean and how do we accomplish these tasks? Marcato is a basic stroke that I teach to every one of my students, from the four and five year olds to college-aged students. When we play, our sound (unless we want to purposefully add different effects) should remain constant and consistent throughout the bowstroke. It should kinda look like this: ——– When we change the speed of the bow during a bowstroke, we normally get something like this: — — — — — ** Notice that the sound changes in the middle, due to a change in bow speed. Marcato merely
